ESPN's Samantha Steele, who is engaged to marry a Twin Cities-based professional football quarterback. (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

We've seen Christian Ponder briefly discuss his engagement to ESPN sideline reporter Samantha Steele. We've seen tons of Internet speculation on their relationship. We've even seen the spectacle of a Minneapolis gossip asking if they had a "biblically chaste courtship."

But until now, not a word from Ponder's fiancee.

"We were going to be honest about this situation once we realized this was the real deal," Steele says in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch, who confirmed rumors of the engagement last week. "Obviously, I had zero interest in people knowing about it. But once people started asking, I certainly was not going to lie."

The two began dating earlier this year after meeting on the set of ESPN's "College Gameday." And news of their relationship spread quickly through social media.

"I definitely did not desire to be in a relationship that people would talk about and ask about outside of my family," Steele told Deitsch. "Look, the term high-profile relationship for us is laughable because we are probably the biggest scrubs when it comes to the way we live our lives."

There's more to the interview, including her thoughts about conflicts of interest and what is was like to replace Erin Andrews. You can read it all at si.com.